We are joining the REACH Bwindi challenge to climb 20 hills over the next year to celebrate each of Bwindi Community Hospital's 20 years serving a remote, rural population in South-West Uganda, via its remarkable community nursing team! We're aiming to raise £20 per hill. Please sponsor us or come and join us up a hill! (Hill height will vary depending on the family member's age, recent knee operation etc - we're relying on Pete for the big mountains!)

Ceri worked at Bwindi Community Hospital between 2015 and 2017 and still supports the hospital by being a trustee of REACH Bwindi, the UK charity supporting the hospital.

BCH is celebrating being 20 years old! It is situated in a beautiful, hilly area of South-West Uganda. But the reality of life for many local people involves hiking up and down these steep slopes every day, carrying water, food and firewood. It is remote, and often they live far from health services. To address this, Bwindi Community Hospital has daily village outreaches by their community nursing team; they visit each of the 101 villages in their catchment area twice annually. They bring education, vaccinations, medications, antenatal care, mosquito nets and family planning; they screen for and treat malnutrition and other physical and mental ill health. It can be tough work over difficult terrain, which is often wet and muddy. Though the benefits may not be instantly seen - as opposed to completing a successful surgical operation for example - this primary care approach yields impressive results in the long term. In many villages, vaccination rates are now comparable with the UK and rates of severe malnutrition, malaria and infant mortality have plummeted 90%.